North Hollywood : Mother Rescues Son, Daughter From Fire

A quick-thinking mother who plucked her young son from a first-floor window as a fire raged through her apartment was credited by fire officials Sunday with saving his life and that of her 3-year-old daughter.

No one was injured in the blaze, which started about 11:15 a.m. at the modest eight-unit apartment building on Vineland Avenue north of Victory Boulevard. Fire officials at the scene said they thought the fire had been sparked by an electrical short, possibly caused by a worn appliance plug or a malfunctioning extension cord under a pile of newspapers.

“Twenty-one years I’ve been living here, and it was all gone in minutes,” lamented the mother, Helen Jacobbauski, 22. She, her two children and her father were left homeless by the fire.

Two other apartments suffered smoke damage, boosting the total property damage estimate to $38,000.

Jacobbauski said she was lying on her living room couch, watching television, when she smelled “the most horrible smell.” Then she noticed orange flames and black smoke in her dining room. She scooped up her daughter, Juliette, and ran to the building’s front yard.

Her son, David, 5, whose bedroom is at the front of the apartment building, screamed to her from the window, which was open. She pulled him to safety. Jacobbauski said she did not get her son first because she felt she had only seconds to get herself and her daughter out of the living room.

“She really did the right thing,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief Rodney Wilmot. “That was an outstanding operation.”

Wilmot said Jacobbauski’s apartment had three smoke detectors, none of which, apparently, was working. The apartment’s landlord could not be reached for comment.

Wilmot said the fire underscores the importance of checking smoke detectors every six months.

The fire capped a series of difficult experiences for Jacobbauski’s family. Her father is undergoing cancer treatment, she said, and other problems have drained the family’s finances. Jacobbauski, who is separated and works as a telephone operator for the Warner Center Marriott Hotel, lived with her divorced father and her children in the two-bedroom apartment.